"There is nothing harder than, if you are the New York Times, getting beat on a big national security story — and to get beat by your biggest overseas competitor and your biggest national competitor, at the same time. It was just painful," he said.

Glenn Greenwald, who broke the NSA story for the Guardian, responded to Baquet's remarks in a post on Friday, calling them "encouraging."

"Dean Baquet’s epiphany about the US Government and the American media... is long-overdue, but better late than never," he wrote. "Let us hope that it signals an actual change in behavior." Visit the Intercept for more.